China mine explosion kills more than 200

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The voracious demand for energy is behind a series of
disastrous colliery disasters.

A massive gas explosion ripping through a coalmine in north-east
China has killed at least 203 miners.

The blast at 3 o'clock local time on Monday afternoon in the
Sunjiawan colliery, near the city of Fuxin in Liaoning province,
came about 10 minutes after miners felt a sharp tremor shake the
earth, yet no attempt appears to have been made to evacuate
workers.

The combustion of methane gas and coal dust killed 203 miners
and trapped at least 13 others. Survivors helped bring out 22
injured workers, one of whom remains in a coma with critical head
injuries.

The blast is the worst in China's recent history, and comes
after Prime Minister Wen Jiabao ordered a complete overhaul of
safety following two underground disasters late last year, one
killing 166 miners in Shaanxi province and the other killing 148
miners in Henan province.

"We must be responsible for the workers, be responsible for the
people and be responsible for later generations," Mr Wen said after
a Government meeting in January that allocated 51.8 billion yuan
($A8 billion) to better mine safety, with some of the money coming
from levies on enterprises.

Authorities have also begun penalising officials to sharpen up
safety inspections. After the Henan blast, it was announced that
the provincial deputy governor had been given an "administrative
warning", while five others responsible for the accident had been
handed to prosecutors for possible criminal charges.

China's coal industry is the largest in the world. Output rose
15 per cent last year, to 1.9 billion tonnes, as demand pushed
prices up 54 per cent for the year. Coal supplies about 70 per cent
of the country's energy needs.

Last year, accidents in coalmines killed 6027 workers, a 6 per
cent decrease on the previous year. But international labour groups
believe the real toll could be three times higher, because many
accidents are not reported by thousands of smaller mines under
private control.

China's state-controlled Xinhua news agency said yesterday that
180 mine rescue specialists had been sent to the Sunjiawan mine, in
the heart of the industrial "rust belt" in the region once known as
Manchuria. Heavy snow was falling across the area.

Journalists said that the regional Government had ordered a news
blackout on the disaster, with access to the mine strictly
controlled and all local newspapers ordered to use only material
supplied by Xinhua.

The coalmine had been working at full output through the
week-long Chinese New Year holiday, as power stations have been
operating with almost empty coal stockpiles for several months.

Workers reported feeling a sudden, strong tremor shake the mine
10 minutes before the blast, Zhang Yunfu, vice-general manager of
mine operator Fuxin Coal, was quoted as telling Xinhua. The blast
occurred in works 242 metres underground and was attributed to a
gas explosion by Zhao Tiechui, a deputy director of the State
Administration of Work Safety.